I rescued my 2 year old male chow chow (golden mix?) last summer from a local shelter where he had been for several months. I was assured by the staff that he was dog and cat tested upon arrival and the day I picked him up, although they refused to allow me see the testing (should have seen that as a red flag). Upon arriving home he aggressively chased after the cat barking, lunging, snarling and biting. After an adjustment period we tried controlled introductions to other well socialized dogs, which he had the same response. We cannot go for walks around the neighborhood because most neighborhood dogs are not fenced or leashed, and when we go on hikes they have to be on remote trails and he wears a basket muzzle at all times (which he tolerates excellently). Even though his animal aggression is a significant problem in our daily lives I do not believe in returning shelter dogs, this is his forever him. I have several years experience with training service dogs and rehabilitated a human aggressive chow years ago who eventually became incredibly friendly. However, I find his aggression to be a bit out of my league. I have found a specialized dog aggressive training course in my area, although we have to wait until the summer to attend as it is far away and currently conflicts with my work schedule.

My friends are no longer willing to work with their dogs and Koda because their dogs become too stressed. The cat must live in a separate area of the house, although recently we have made some progress with keeping Koda in the crate and letting the cat roam the house. He now just barks at her and pants rather than aggressively trying to attack her. Over the past few months I have worked very diligently on control behaviors with him. He waits on command and if given a hand signal when too excited will lay down on his side on the floor (immediately in non-distracting situations, we are working with distractions at the moment). I have found these are a huge component in his recent improvement around the cat.

Has anyone else experienced something similar to this and had any luck with certain training techniques? I would greatly appreciate any input